Is Teknetics Dead?

[GB_Amateur]

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

So (what) is the purpose of the $639 (price)?

...

...Is the purpose of that change in price Teknetics direct have done on their website to make the detector look like it's a higher value item, them everyone is going to be still selling it at the much cheaper $499 price so people think they're getting a great deal? Is it some sort of marketing going on?

I was thinking along the same lines.  Their distributors have detectors on inventory that aren't selling but for which they paid a hefty(?) wholesale price.  For the dealers to drop down from the $499 (basic Green model), there might not be much if any profit left.  (Some may still have models from when the retail price and MAP were considerably higher.)   If Tek Direct shows a high price then the dealers' prices look like a good deal.  Of course anyone who's followed the market even peripherally would know better than to get sucked in.  That's all I can think of.

[Geotech]

21 hours ago, phrunt said:

I say this as only a couple of months ago it was $499 on Teknetics Direct, now it's $639, found that such a puzzle that they would such dramatically change the price of such an old outdated detector model at a time when competition in the marketplace is so fierce as their offering is not really what you'd call in demand.

MAP pricing was created back in the 1970s to deal with mega-dealers like Kellyco. It was intended to create a level playing field between them and the mom&pop dealers. You could not advertise a detector for less than MAP but you could sell it for less than MAP. To skirt the advertising restriction dealers often added a bunch of accessories "for free." Usually they were junk, but it's the illusion that counts.
Detector companies usually have the policy that they will not compete with their own dealers. So if the company sells direct, it is usually at MSRP and not MAP. I think what may have happened is that the T2 had been listed at MAP and now it's been raised to MSRP. Typically MAP is 80-85% of MSRP.

Quote

As for Serious Detecting selling the 11" T2 coil for $14900 perhaps they were a little confused, they probably thought the reason nobody wanted to use that coil was as they loved it so much, treasured it, made it a collectable and assumed because of this it was a high value collectable item.  It may not have occurred to them the reason people don't use that coil is because it is rubbish?

Their price is correct. This is a special edition "audiophile" version of the coil. It uses oxygen-free copper Litz for the winding, the housing is carbon nanotubes formed under the heat and pressure of the sun, the cable has double defluorinated Teflon coaxial cables using niobium-germanium conductors with a polymorphine SuperFlex jacket, and a titanium connector housing with beryllium contacts. It performs exactly the same as the standard coil but allows the owner to sneer at those with lesser equipment.

[V3i/MXT Pro]

Does anyone know the voltage rating of the flux capacitor on that coil?

[Steve Herschbach]

The MSRP vs MAP paradigm crosses all industries and certainly is not something created by the detector industry. It’s just the way we do business in the US. A fake price and a real price to give the impression of value and being on sale, all based on the presumption that consumers are stupid. 

[Aureous]

I own an orig green T2 plus a Chinese copy, both function identically with the same depth, ID numbers etc. The coil supplied with the Chinese copy was junk though, could never ground balance. Had it replaced with a Ukrainian one and it runs superbly. AU$295 for the T2 copy and the Cors coil combined. If the proper new T2 was advertised for US$399, they'd actually sell some. There is nothing owing to FTP in regards to the T2, its been around for decades now and they can afford to discount it heavily, especially considering its such a cheap detector to produce.

[phrunt]

I think the only place they would sell genuine T2's now is in the USA as the clones are not flooding the US market like they are elsewhere in the world, the clones are much easier to get your hands on elsewhere than the real thing all over Ebay, Aliexpress and local auction sites and for a fraction of the price, I've seen the Chinese T2's for as little as $148 NZD, which is about $84 USD and that's delivered, hard to complete with that especially with the USD so high.  Most companies would discontinue the detector to get away from the counterfeits, a bit like Minelab when the X-terra was cloned, they discontinued it, now they're everywhere all over Aliexpress but seeing it's no longer a product Minelab sell people are less likely to think they're buying a real one when it's a fake.

I wouldn't trust anyone selling a T2 here saying it's a real one, I'd need some pretty good proof before I'd buy it, it's very unlikely to be real.

[Rob in (ca)]

Funny Thing……in small print  at The bottom of most MAP price ad’s for a new detector …..will state ……. (call or email us 1st, you will be glad you did) …… I’ve purchased many new detectors over the years & never paid MAP